CHAPTER XXXII
How God is a true, simple, perfect Good, and how He is a Light and
a Reason and all Virtues, and how what is highest and best, that is, God, ought
to be most loved by us.
In short, I would have you to understand, that God (in so far as He is good) is
goodness as goodness, and not this or that good. But here mark one thing.
Behold! what is sometimes here and sometimes there is not everywhere, and above
all things and places; so also, what is to-day, or to-morrow, is not always, at
all times, and above all time; and what is some thing, this or that, is not all
things and above all things. Now behold, if God were some thing, this or that,
He would not be all in all, and above all, as He is; and so also, He would not
be true Perfection. Therefore God is, and yet He is neither this nor that which
the creature, as creature, can perceive, name, conceive or express. Therefore
if God (in so far as He is good) were this or that good, He would not be all
good, and therefore He would not be the One Perfect Good, which He is. Now God
is also a Light and a Reason,[40] the property
of which is to give light and shine, and take knowledge; and inasmuch as God is
Light and Reason, He must give light and perceive. And all this giving and
perceiving of light existeth in God without the creature; not as a work
fulfilled, but as a substance or well-spring. But for it to flow out into a
work, something really done and accomplished,[41] there must be creatures through whom this can come to
pass. Look ye: where this Reason and Light is at work in a creature, it
perceiveth and knoweth and teacheth what itself is; how that it is good in
itself and neither this thing nor that thing. This Light and Reason knoweth and
teacheth men, that it is a true, simple, perfect Good, which is neither this
nor that special good, but comprehendeth every kind of good.
Now, having declared that this Light teacheth
the One Good, what doth it teach concerning it? Give heed to this. Behold! even
as God is the one Good and Light and Reason, so is He also Will and Love and
Justice and Truth, and in short all virtues. But all these are in God one
Substance, and none of them can be put in exercise and wrought out into deeds
without the creature, for in God, without the creature, they are only as a
Substance or well-spring, not as a work. But where the One, who is yet all
these, layeth hold of a creature, and taketh possession of it, and directeth
and maketh use of it, so that He may perceive in it somewhat of His own,
behold, in so far as He is Will and Love, He is taught of Himself, seeing that
He is also Light and Reason, and He willeth nothing but that One thing which He
is.
Behold! in such a creature, there is no longer
anything willed or loved but that which is good, because it is good, and for no
other reason than that it is good, not because it is this or that, or pleaseth
or displeaseth such a one, is pleasant or painful, bitter or sweet, or what
not. All this is not asked about nor looked at. And such a creature doth
nothing for its own sake, or in its own name, for it hath quitted all Self, and
Me, and Mine, and We and Ours, and the like, and these are departed. It no
longer saith, "I love myself, or this or that, or what not." And if you were to
ask Love, "What lovest thou?" she would answer, "I love Goodness." "Wherefore?"
"Because it is good, and for the sake of Goodness." So it is good and just and
right to deem that if there were ought better than God, that must be loved
better than God. And thus God loveth not Himself as Himself, but as Goodness.
And if there were, and He knew, ought better than God, He would love that and
not Himself. Thus the Self and the Me are wholly sundered from God, and belong
to Him only in so far as they are necessary for Him to be a Person.
Behold! all that we have said must indeed come to
pass in a Godlike man, or one who is truly "made a partaker of the divine
nature"; for else he would not be truly such.
[40] Cognition is the word which comes nearest
to the original Erkenntniss, but would not harmonise with the style of
the translation.
[41] Or, be realised.